


Once a Memory

by marbearf4793



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 04:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2010750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marbearf4793/pseuds/marbearf4793
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cloud has been reliving the horrors of his past, day in, and day out. With him and Zack trying to live past what happened to them nearly a year ago he's got enough on his mind, right? Wrong. Now there's a threat to his somewhat stable life. And his name is Sephiroth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once a Memory

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoy the first installment of "Once a Memory". Note this is my first time, so feel free to give me any advice! :) thank you and enjoy! (^・ω・^ )

~Chapter One~

I'm slammed into a nearby house. Quickly I get into a kneeling position using my Buster sword to stabilize myself. Realizing I was still in the midst of a fight I look up to see my opponent weaving between the houses with a wry smile raising his sword to attack position. The SOLDIER brought down his sword intending for it to be a fatal blow, but failed. I dodged to the side then brought my sword in a circular slashing motion towards his neck with as much strength as my muscles could bring forth. Being as this SOLDIER was not just any old opponent, he swiftly evaded the attack casting a fireball my way as he landed on a nearby rooftop. Pushing off towards him I wield my sword as he snickers and shouts,

_“And you call yourself a SOLDIER 1st class, hah!”_

With a smirk I finally reach him and connect my sword to his with a clang, catching him off guard.

_“Haven’t you learned not to talk so much during a fight?”_

_“Only when it’s challenging, kiddo.”_

And with that he thrusts me back with immense force and dashes to me sweeping his leg under. While I’m knocked down, he sticks his sword into the space between my face and shoulder, digging it into the coarse sand.

_“Never let your guard down, kid, it could cost you your life.”_

I peek up at the dark haired SOLDIER, the sun shining joyously around him. Almost like The Planet’s inviting him in, beckoning him to become a part of it.

_“I know, I know.”_

I manage to mumble, taking his outreached hand.

_“Oh come one, don’t be such a sour puss,”_ he pats me on the shoulder chuckling, _“you’ll beat me someday. Not saying it’ll be soon but-“but-“_

I didn’t even let him finish before I punch him in the arm and stalk away with a face of indifference.

“Hey! Wait up!” 

As we walk to the edge of town the houses and buildings seem to deteriorate away leaving both SOLDEIRS in a room with cracks, holes, in the walls, light fixtures, and electrical wires dangling from the ceiling.

_ “Looks like we didn’t wreck it too bad.” _

_ “Surprising.”  _

He swivels around to the big two-way window and a door while saying under his breath, 

_ “Your attitude really doesn’t help the “blondes have more fun” saying.”  _

Then yells to the window boisterously, 

_ “Hey guys! What were our scores?” _

We hear a *click* sound and someone clearing their throat. 

_ “SOLDIER Zack Fair made a 321 point score and Cloud Strife achieved his new high score of 340. Congratulations on the win Strife!” _

Careful not to show how elated I was at my victory, I slowly entered the door to many other SOLDIERS greeting me with a “Great job!” or “Nice work beating your mentor, Strife!” Though I am an expert at hiding my emotions in a shadowy, dark mental cave, Zack on the other hand was the worst. He rushed to the control panels and TV screens, pressing his face against them. 

_ “Whhhyyy? I won!” _

Seeing that Zack was preoccupied, my decision was to sit down on the bench next to the door and somberly be a spectator to the situation happening before me. 

_ “I totally kicked his butt the whole time! Cloud had his moments, but I had him beat from the beginning!” _

Suddenly Director Lazard and Tseng, the leader of the Turks, walk through the door. 

_ “You lost because you’re incapable of focusing on the task or target at hand without opening your mouth to spout something cocky and irrelevant to the situation.” _

Of course Zack had a predictable response by clamoring Director Lazard with nonsense about his duty as a mentor to beat knowledge into his star pupil with words of wisdom, which Lazard had an answer like I must be his star pupil if I can beat him without saying so many words, maybe he should learn from me. 

_ “Cloud has an advantage of being someone who doesn’t waste his time talking unless it’s Tifa and the kids.”  _

_“Maybe that’s why I always win?”_ I commented with a smirk playing across my face.

I could see Zack reverting to his whiney voice by the way his face scrunches up right before, which made this all the better. 

_ “No you always win because Tseng likes you more than me!”  _

Tseng pipes in with a bit too much eagerness, _“Isn’t that the truth!”_

Zack’s reaction to one of his best friends comment was priceless. The way his face drooped, his body slumped, everyone knew he was going to his corner to sit quietly like the sad, sad SOLDIER he was at the moment. Some of the SOLDIERs race over to him, trying to “comfort” their leader. Tseng and Lazard return their attention to me. 

Tseng drapes his arm on my shoulders, 

_“My, my Cloud how you’ve grown. It’s been 2 years since your escape from Hojos experiments_ ,” 

At the mention of that vile scientist, unwillingly my body tensed with immediate hatred and the remembrance of what Zack and I had endured during those four years. 

_ “And while you’ve been doing fairly well, Zack has not. I know he has recently lost his mentor, Angeal, but he still has not tried to cope with it or recover from it.” _

_ “Tseng what are you getting at?”  _

Tseng smiled showing his pearly white feline teeth. 

_ “I believe its time both you and Zack get a third partner!”  _

He voiced with such excitement and anxiousness all of his intentions with this new “partner”, and why we needed another person for Zack to antagonize. I stopped him before he could ask any favors of me with my usual response to everything these days.

_ “Not interested.”  _

With that I rise up, salute the Turk leader with my right hand over my heart horizontally, and step towards the door. I swear Zack has some sort of radar for me. He seems to sense when I’m leaving the area, even when he’s on one of his emotional pleas of defense.

Quickly responding he said, _“Cloud. Where are you headed off to?”_

Fortunately for me , I had gotten a call just before our training session from someone very important to the both of us. I reach for the door seeing Zack charge towards me, knowing he was on the brink of tackling me to the ground if that’s what it took to contain me. Although I knew who might be behind the door and who I might be redirecting Zack’s tackling onto, I knew that she could handle it. When Zack was two steps away I swung the door open leaving Zack to run into the woman standing on the other side, like always at this time of day. Typical Aerith. 

_ “Aerith? Ah!” _

_ “Zack? Oh!”  _

They both tumble to the ground along with the flowers she was holding in a basket. I’ve known Aerith for four years now; it feels like we had just met yesterday. Sometimes I sort of wish I hadn’t stumbled across her; might have made our lives so much simpler. After mine and Zacks escape from Hojo, we struggled to make it to Midgar, the eastern city of Gaia. He was basically carrying me as I was somewhat unconscious most of the time. Since before we escaped I had just been given a dose of Hojos Genova cell experiments. I was pretty much useless the whole time, though I did come in and out of unconsciousness. We had made it to Midgar but we ended up going to the slum section of that big industrial metropolis. With our previous events I assume Zack was careful not to cross into the Shinra area. That might have been the reason for our trip to the Midgar slums. At some point I had woken up for a time and found myself lying in a bed of white and yellow flowers with voices in the distance. It appeared like I was in a church, since all around me I saw high arches, bright windows, and a number of pews. With no recollection of what had happened in the last few hours, I slowly stand up, or try I should say. The effects of the experiments had not yet run off. I wobbled up on one foot trying, but not succeeding, to steady myself, unfortunately, I fell to the ground with a thud. 

_ -Sigh-. Come on Cloud. You’ve handled worse than this before. _

As I try to get up a hand appears in front of me followed by a melodic voice. 

_ “Need a hand?” _

I tilted my head up to see a girl with a heart-warming smile, a long flowing brunette braid, with a sunset pink bow. I accepted her hand with a slight grunt as I hefted my weight forward to stand. 

_ “Uh, thanks. I’m not quite sure where I am.”  _

She took my hand, jerking me forward and strode towards the open door of the church. 

_ “Here, come with me! You’re probably still exhausted! I’ll give you a place to rest!”  _

Suddenly she stopped just at the doorway as she caught a glimpse of my facial expression, which was I believe confusion with a mixture of awe. She had pretty much confronted me, a stranger to her at the time, and offered me to stay at her home so yeah; I was pretty much in shock. But I soon learned that this was just how Aerith was, a caring, kind hearted person, with the belief of the best in people no matter what. 

_ “I guess I probably should introduce myself before, you run off.” _

She spoke with an amused look on her face making her face immediately light up, I could hardly look at her.

She smiled, _“I’m Aerith Gainsborough and you must be Cloud?”_

Now that I had learned her named it was easier for me to give her a once over to see what she actually looked like. She had a white and blue shirt accompanying a flowing skirt reaching just below her knees and a pair of sandals. Oddly enough she had bits and pieces of white and yellow petals scattered about her hair. 

_ “Cloud Strife. Pleased to meet you, Aerith.” _

With a giggle she exclaimed, 

_ “You ARE Cloud! Zack’s told me a lot about you!” _

At the mention of Zacks name, I shot a glance at her speaking very firmly and with interest, 

_“Zack? You know Zack?”_

_ “Of course! He showed up here at this church about 5 hours ago.” _

So I have been out for hours. Really no wonder I feel groggy and unfed. Geez Zack could have at least woken me up. 

_ “Oh. Do you know where he is now?”  _

_ “Yes, he’s grabbing some food for the two of you. I’m sure he’ll be back soon. He was quiet exhausted though, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he laid to rest somewhere.”  _

_ “Hah, sounds like him. Leaving me somewhere unfamiliar for a long period of time.” _

She giggled putting a hand on her abdomen and the other on her cheek.

_ “Seems like you two know each other really well.” _

Right on cue, I here Zacks loud rambunctious mouth a few yards away. 

_“Cloud! Aerith! Get inside quick_!” 

On instinct I wrapped an arm around Aeriths waist and pulled us both back inside the church towards the field of flowers in the damaged floor. Zack enters the church in a frenzy with four bags of what seemed like groceries. 

_ “Zack what’s going on?” _

He rushes to Aerith dropping the bags on the way unintentionally stomping on her flowers.

_ “Zack, the flowers!” _

_ “Don’t worry about those Aerith, listen, we have to get out of here. Now.”  _

I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he was looking at Aerith right now. Caring, anxious, worried, and most of all with a dangerous look of protection. 

_ “What happened?”  _

_ “Shinra caught our scent somehow and are on their way with tons and tons of SOLDIERS. Aerith I need you to take Cloud to your house and lay low for a while.”  _

_ “Okay. But Zack?”  _

_ “Yes?”  _

_ “Be careful,”  _

She reached across the space between them and placed her left hand on his cheek. 

_ “but don’t die on me, okay? I’ll be very angry with you.” _

He smiled warmly. 

_“Don’t worry. I won’t let ya down. Besides, staying alive is what I do best._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> Again feel free to give comments and advice!  
> 


End file.
